In the process of re-landscaping, we have been looking at including native Floridian plant species. In doing the research on what we should include, I came across quite a lot on 'Survival Gardening' and foraging from your own yard. Much to my surprise, we actually have quite a number of the 'edible' plants that different sites and books recommend keeping and using to cut down on grocery bills, but I have never heard of anyone really doing this. Have you ever done any survival gardening or foraging? Is it worth the time and effort you put into it?
From what I understand with the thread title, you are raising food that can feed you in times of disaster. Well and good because we have those in our backyard garden. My best bet is the sweet potato, a vine that is sturdy and so easy to raise. It gives us not only the root crop but also the leaves for vegetable purposes.
I don't have the space to grow large amounts of vegetables but I do row enough herbs and chillies to last me all year round. I use a lot of these in my dishes so it does save me a fair few pounds. I certainly couldn't be self-sufficient though, not in my current house.
Actually, from what I've read, the survival gardening and foraging 'movements' seem to be going hand-in-hand and focusing on preserving edible plants that are already growing in your yard as well, such as wood sorrels, spiderwort, and shepherds needle. Oddly enough, they are plants we have an abundance of growing naturally in our yards. I have simply never thought of them as food, and really wonder if and how edible they might be and whether using them is worth the effort of learning how to work with them.
That's a good point. To be honest, I wouldn't have a clue on how to assess the amount of 'staples' I would need to locate or plant to even consider self-sufficiency an option. That's another side aspect of the foraging/harvesting what's naturally growing in your yard - that I'm uncertain of addressing. I don't believe I have ever seen a site or resource that reliably reports (or a reliable site that reports) the nutritional balances of edible wild plants.
This reminds me of my husband's story when they were having their survival training held in the mountain. They stayed there for 3 days and 2 nights with only a canteen of water and nothing more although they have their implements like knife, flashlight, matches, etc. For those teams that were not able to secure food, they went hungry. It was a good thing that my husband had an introduction to mountain life. He was able to catch a wild chicken that was considered a treasure in those survival training. With the vegetation, there was that tuber called tugi which tasted like potato. That knowledge of my husband served his team very well.
It is good to have some vegetables in your garden that you can use in case of emergency if you have the space. I know people eat dandelion leaves as greens and we have wild onions in our yard all spring, which we pull up and throw away. I think we need to learn to not depend on the grocery store so much and have some of the things we need in our own control.
There is actually a difference between survival gardening and foraging. Survival gardening would be to actually plant things that will grow and produce food, such as the sweet potatoes that @Corzhens mentioned. Foraging is going out to find edible plants that would grow wild, such as dandelions. Dandelions can be found almost everywhere, and they were actually brought to the United States because they are such a healthy food. Over time, they spread out, and now we no longer grow them as a prized flower in the garden, we mow them down as a weed. However, all parts of the dandelion can be used as food. The roots can be dried and ground to add to coffee, the leaves are eaten either raw or cooked like spinach, and the flowers are made into dandelion jelly , or dandelion wine. There are a lot of plants that will grow in the yard, or in vacant lots, and they are very healthy and vitamin dense plants, and require no effort except to find and gather them. Amazon is a good place to find books on foraging for plants. I also like the website called "eat the weeds", and they have a lot of great tutorials on Youtube showing which plants are edible and how to prepare them.
